By Camille Cox | Staff Writer
SophoMORE September offered events — including a special Dr Pepper Hour, a trip to Independence and the opportunity to run the line — for students who missed out on traditions due to COVID-19.
As SophoMORE September comes to a close, the sophomore class had the opportunity to reflect on its feelings toward Baylor’s efforts.
Billings, Mont., sophomore Aiden Sturdevant believed that while Baylor did its best, there’s no replacing the memories and experiences lost from freshman year.
“I think it’s good that Baylor recognized that we were lacking our freshman experience from last year and decided to try to make amends for that, but it kind of feels like a poor attempt to replace it,” Sturdevant said. “Baylor is known for their freshman traditions, and we missed out on that, but there’s no replacement for that.”
The current freshman class had the opportunity to participate in new student traditions, such as Line Camp, which is held every summer at Baylor. The sophomore class completed Line Camp virtually last year, giving them the opportunity to experience some of the traditions with COVID-19 safety precautions.
“I think that lacking that [Line Camp] freshman tradition hindered people’s ability to make friends, also considering that we couldn’t talk to people in class,” Sturdevant said. “The freshmen now are able to come to campus with a solid base of friends or at least a few friendly faces, whereas we didn’t have that, and there’s no making that up.”
Memphis, Tenn., sophomore Bella Snow went on the SophoMORE September-sponsored Independence trip, which took any student who missed out on the experience to visit the birthplace of the university. Along with her classmates, Snow learned about the story and founding of Baylor, which would normally happen at Line Camp in person.
“I thought it was a super fun trip and was really informative and ceremonial,” Snow said. “We took the two-hour bus ride there, and even though we were all sophomores, they made a point to do ice-breakers and ‘get to know you’ questions, which was really cool.”
The trip to Independence was optional — only offered to students who wished to sign up and pay to take part in the historical freshman tradition.
“My good friend Sarah Michael and I dressed up in red, white and blue as a pun on the word independence and were very patriotic the entire trip,” Snow said. “It made the trip a little more interesting because sometimes historical tours and learning the background of a school can get a little boring, but it made it even more fun.”
According to the SophoMORE September schedule, students in BU ’24 who did not claim a line ticket last season are able to enter a lottery for a line ticket for the UT and OU football games. While the tickets to run or sit with the line are not guaranteed, those students do have the opportunity to randomly be selected.
Dallas sophomore McKay Harman said he was disappointed by the Baylor Line decision within SophoMORE September.
“I’ve been dreaming about running it since I was 5 years old — since Baylor has been my dream school — and last year, we sort of got to run it, but it was a major letdown compared to what it could’ve been,” Harman said. “I heard these rumors that the whole sophomore class was going to get to run the line once, and then once we got to Baylor it was like, ‘Oh, if you didn’t run it last year, you get to run it this year.’”
While many BU ’24 students were able to run the line last year, it was at 25% capacity, with the opportunity to run being entirely random for each student who tried to claim a ticket.
“I ran it once last year [when] it was 25%, and we had to wear masks during the game, and it just wasn’t the same as I thought it would be,” Harman said. “I thought they’d do something over-grand and special this year for us, and they didn’t —specifically with the Baylor Line.”
The overall consensus varies among the sophomore class of feeling satisfied or let down by Baylor’s efforts to include BU ’24.
“Even though we are sophomores and have been here a year, it is still really cool getting to do our firsts,” Snow said. “We really haven’t missed anything, and they’ve really checked all the boxes with all the traditions freshmen get to do.”
